Projo Politics Blog

By JOHN E. MULLIGAN
Journal Washington bureau

Sen. Jack Reed will be in the vanguard tonight as the Democratic Party's leading voices on defense and foreign affairs make a case for Barack Obama as commander in chief.

They will also take aim at the Rhode Island Democrat's Senate Armed Services Committee colleague, Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

"Senator McCain seems to style the war in Iraq as beginning with the surge and ending with the surge, " Reed said today. He referred to President Bush's strategic increase of troops last year, which McCain had long advocated and which even skeptics such as Reed now concede has improved the situation in Iraq.

"In reality, the war began with his vote in 2002," Reed said. That was a reference to the congressional resolution that authorized Bush to use force against Saddam Hussein. McCain, and a majority of Democrats, including vice presidential candidate Joe Biden of Delaware, voted for the resolution. Reed opposed it.

Reed did not say whether that line was a rehearsal of what he will tell a national TV audience tonight from the Democratic convention stage. "We will make the contrast between Senator McCain and Senator Obama," said Reed, mouthing with a smile the standard euphemism for political attacks.

Reed spoke in a brief interview at a downtown Denver hotel, looking trim and buttoned down for his day-long round of appearances at party gatherings and media events.

This will be a national introduction of sorts for Reed, who is already well known to Rhode Islanders and Washington insiders as a West Point grad and former Army Airborne officer who accompanied Obama last month on a closely-watched tour of tour of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Reed did say he will try in his speech to move the debate away from the surge and focus on the foreign policy challenges of the future -- political ground where he thinks Obama has the edge over veteran McCain.

 Tags  Democratic Convention Iraq war Jack Reed John McCain

Comments

Michael said:

Jack Reed is a smug weasel, and anyone who votes for him is either a smug weasel themselves or uniformed. Reed takes massive campaign contributions from Picerne Military Housing, while he sits on the Senate Committee for Military Construction that oversees the many military housing contracts that Picerne is given. And even if I didn't know about Picerne, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to see that Reed is not against the war - he actually voted for it almost every single time, AND he takes his money from the large banks, who profit off of the added interest to our national debt that is created by the war. By the way, The Warwick Beacon ran an excellent front page story this week on Christopher Young, who is Jack Reed's opponent on September 9th (who I am voting for, by the way.)
Why haven't I read any similar articles on Young in the Providence Journal? You guys have cut staff and just decided not to report the news? If I had a subscription, I'd cancel it today.

Link | August 27, 2008 2:41 PM
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George said:

I'm no Jack Reed fan Michael and I tend to agree with your description of him, but Chris Young? Did you just move in from the Ozarks? Chris Young has been running for everything he can get his name on for the past decade. The kindest way I can think of describing him is "certifiable".

If you want a good, honest man in the Senate, vote for Bob Tingle.

Link | August 27, 2008 3:44 PM
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